The best of The Naughts: top films of the decade

View full sizeJulianne Moore and Dennis Haysbert in "Far from Heaven"It is a truism that time passes more quickly as one ages; a decade in the life of an octogenarian represents, after all, a smaller percentage of total life than it does for a twentysomething.

But I still haven’t hit my 50s, and so when it dawned on me a couple months ago that I would be responsible for writing up an article about the best films of the ‘00s, my instantaneous and completely honest reaction was: “But it hasn’t been a decade yet!”

No, I wasn’t nitpicking about whether decades start and finish in years that end in 9s or 1s or 0s. Rather, I was thinking that there was more time ahead, that I hadn’t seen enough films of quality, that the truly great works of the decade that I will forever refer to as "The Naughts" were still ahead of us.

And then I checked the record.

(And, yes, there is a record.)

And it was shinier than I had remembered.

As it happens, it has been my habit since 2003 to keep a spreadsheet of every film I’ve seen in a given year -- it helps me slap grades on ‘em to see ‘em all in a sortable stack -- and, beyond that, I have copies of every single review I’ve written going back to 1986, filed and sorted on my hard drive in year-by-year folders.

View full sizeUlrich Muhe in "The Lives of Others"I am thus able to state categorically that I have seen -- good gravy! -- 2463 new films since January 1, 2000, which came as something of a shock, on the one hand, but certainly seems like a full decade of movie-watching and makes me feel a whole lot better about being paid to do it.

And having poured over my spreadsheets and folders and best-of-the-year lists (and peeked at the best-of-the-decade lists posted online by colleagues hither and thither), I received a second surprise: Namely, a lot of good movies were made and released during the past ten years.

I thought at first that I could sum up the decade in 10 films. Ha. An initial pass over my database gave me a short list of 128 titles -- or, roughly five percent of what I’d seen -- that I thought of as memorable or admirable enough to warrant mention in a roundup of the decade.

And they were all over the map: blockbuster franchises and little indie sleepers, sturdy domestic dramas and adventuresome international genre-busters, critical darlings and oddballs that only I and the directors’ mothers loved -- the gamut, really, of what the movies bring each and every year, but blown up tenfold into a Costco-sized heap.

View full sizeDoug Jones (l.) and Ivana Baquero in "Pan's Labyrinth"So I winnowed and split hairs and threw cherished movies off cliffs and lost sleep (literally: I had a dream about ticking off both Spider-Man and Batman) and finally, after some effort, came up with not 10, not 20, but 50 films that represent, in my mind, the best of the decade.

The picture my choices paint is as diverse, I think, as a decade should be. The top two films, for instance, were instantaneous choices, but they couldn’t be more distinct from one another. And yet, in representing respectively, the megamovie and the personal film, they were intriguingly similar -- each crafted to a glittering sheen, each deeply entertaining, each groundbreaking and anticipating other (and, frankly, lesser) works, each ravishing, moving, true, dear, and fine.

Much the same can be said, I think, for almost every movie I’ve cited, though, and for some which didn’t crack my list. As I learn anew each December when I try to sum up a movie year in 1500 words, film and art and life and the world are simply too big to be accounted for in a list. And lists themselves are part of the ever-shifting kaleidoscope of decisions -- rational and sub-rational -- that we make each second as audiences: "I like this," "I don’t like this," "She’s cool," "I’m tired of her," "I was annoyed by that," "I can’t stop thinking about that," and so on.

View full size"
"Spirited Away"What I’m saying, I guess, is that this is a snapshot of my thinking about a decade that is still revealing itself and which caught me unawares in coming to its end. Ask me in a year’s time what the best films of The Naughts were and I’m pretty sure I’d respond with a top ten drawn from these 50. But the top 50 could, as a block, look substantially different.

That impermanence, finally, is one of the best reasons to read (and to write) arts criticism. You do it not to carve opinions into stone columns that will stand unchanged over millennia, but, rather, to capture a slice of a present, a now, that eternally disappears even faster than you can find words in which to describe it.

A decade, in short, is not enough time to think about, much less write about, a decade.

And they’re only gonna start to get faster, or so I hear....

THE TOP 25 FILMS OF THE '00S

View full sizeOrlando Bloom, Ian McKellen and Viggo Mortensen (l. to r.) in "The Lord of the Rings"1. “The Lord of the Rings” (Peter Jackson, 2001-3): A titanic achievement, taking a massive literary treasure, adapting it more or less faithfully, breaking new technological ground AND, perhaps above all, providing more than a dozen hours of fabulous entertainment. People will be watching this for generations and on technologies we can’t even imagine. I’m frankly jealous of them.

2. “Far From Heaven” (Todd Haynes, 2002): Inspired in part by a move to Portland, where he still lives, Haynes recognized very early in the game the relation of our flashy, hollow contemporary era with the go-go ‘50s-turning-into-‘60s, anticipating “Mad Men” but focusing more deeply on race, sexuality and the very form of filmed drama. Gorgeous and mesmerizing.

View full sizeJasmine Trinca, Luigi Lo Cascio, and Alessio Boni (l. to r.) in "The Best of Youth"3. “The Best of Youth” (Marco Tullio Giordana, 2003): This, too, is an epic, but it takes a captivating form that blends a richly observed and stirringly acted family drama with a history of Italy since the ‘50s. Six hours that fly by in a heartbeat and pull you in every direction in which your spirit can stretch.

4. “The Lives of Others” (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006): A powerful film about the nexus of the personal and the political, made with shockingly confident craft considering it marks the writer-director’s debut. One of the very rare films that adds an entire additional act and makes you grateful for the extra time spent on a remarkable story.

Guy Pearce in "Memento"5. “Memento” (Christopher Nolan, 2000): Nolan did bigger (and also fine) things, but nothing as audacious as this inside-out, backwards-forwards film about memory, forgetting, pain and the search for peace. In its cut-up-and-remade fashion, it echoes a filmmaker’s own working life and reveals just how arbitrary and provisional all narratives are at the core.

6. “Spirited Away” (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001): In a decade in which digital technologies forever altered the landscape of animation, the Japanese master hand-made three wonderful features, none better than this moody, earthy masterpiece to rank with anything by Lewis Carroll or L. Frank Baum. It moves like a dream and sports a vividly game spirit.

View full sizeAl Pacino and Meryl Streep in "Angels in America"7. “Angels in America” (Mike Nichols, 2003): It was made for HBO, but by a theatrical director and with such movie stars as Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson. A vital and impassioned adaptation of a play that’s as elusive as it is epic -- and, I think, the best thing that Nichols has ever done.

8. “Waking Life” (Richard Linklater, 2001): The nearest thing I’ve ever seen in a movie to “Finnegans Wake,” with ideas and images and personalities and the very flow of time and space and logic all unmoored and let loose in a thrilling stream. All that plus deliciously groundbreaking animation. Like dreaming in public with your eyes open.

Rodrigo de la Serna (l.) and Gael Garcia Bernal in "The Motorcycle Diaries"9. “The Motorcycle Diaries” (Walter Salles, 2004): A beautiful bildungsroman, the protagonist of which happens to be a real person who became one of the most famous figures of the century, Che Guevara. More like John Ford’s “Young Mister Lincoln” than Steven Soderbergh’s “Che,” and filled with wit, sex, nature and journeys of the heart and spirit.

10. “Pan’s Labyrinth” (Guillermo del Toro, 2006): A combination of fantasy, politics, mythology, horror and the most extraordinary imagination. Del Toro is a fanboy’s fanboy, yet this film is planted firmly within a plausible vision of the mind and soul of an formidable and brave young girl. And it simply teems with unforgettable imagery.

11. “An Education” (Lone Scherfig, 2009): A film so sleek and pointed and precise that you want to call it perfect -- and, what the hell, it is.

12. “Caché” (Michael Haneke, 2005): Chilling, demanding and razor sharp, a thriller that avoids thrills but not shocks, and a masterwork from a terribly fine filmmaker.

13. “Oldboy” (Chan-wook Park, 2003): A delirious drama/mystery, filled with blood and horror, built with dazzling craft. Thank heavens the US remake has been scotched.

View full sizeMathieu Amalric and Catherine Deneuve in "A Christmas Tale"14. “A Christmas Tale” (Arnaud Desplechin, 2008): A film about family bonds severed and reinforced, it spills out like blood at a crime scene and is never less than beautiful.

15. “Once” (John Carney, 2006): Sweet, tuneful, tiny and very real, with marvelous songs and the sort of making-of story you can’t help but cheer for.

16. “Volver” (Pedro Almodóvar, 2006): In which the great director reaches an acme of comic/horrific melodrama and makes an icon of his gorgeous star, Penelope Cruz.

18. “City of God” (Fernando Meirelles, 2002): The best American crime drama of the decade was South American -- an intimate epic about murder, moviemaking and home.

19. “Before Sunset” (Richard Linklater, 2004): A brilliant sequel to a brilliant film, a work so delicate that mere physical gestures carried the weight of time bombs.

View full size"The Incredibles"20. “The Incredibles” (Brad Bird, 2004): The best and most entertaining film from the only American studio worthy of a brand name. Family fun in all senses.

21. “Talk to Her” (Pedro Almodóvar, 2002): A deconstructed soap opera, a gimlet-eyed tearjerker, and made with impeccable, impish technique by a director in top form.

22. “No Country for Old Men” (Ethan and Joel Coen, 2007): A wild-eyed nightmare combining a chase movie, a western, and a serial killer picture spun with po-faced are-they-kidding? quirk.

View full sizeAnna Kavan in "Dance Party USA"23. “Dance Party USA” and “Quiet City” (Aaron Katz, 2006, 2007): A breathtaking double-headed debut by a young Portland talent who easily tops the mumblecore heap. Shockingly, hearteningly poised and true.

24. “Stranded: I’ve Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains” (Gonzalo Arijon, 2007): One of the most terrible real-life stories of the 20th century becomes a powerfully moving documentary in the 21st.

25. “The Beaches of Agnès” (Agnès Varda, 2009): An artist in her 80s revisits the homes and people and films of her life and proves still vital and delightful.

View full sizeGeorge ClooneyActor of the Decade: George Clooney Who else? An icon of modern masculinity, a star of action adventures, comedies, dramas, and indie films, a director and producer of genuine quality, a man with a life outside of movies, and the only guy in modern Hollywood who could sit between Cary Grant and Robert Mitchum at a bar and not look like a little lost boy. (Honorable mention: Johnny Depp)

View full sizeMeryl StreepView full sizeCate BlanchettActress(es) of the Decade: (tie) Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep It’s not a cop-out not to pick only one: There’s not a slice of difference in the quality of their work. Blanchett made “Lord of the Rings,” “I’m Not There,” “Notes on a Scandal,” “The Aviator”; Streep gave us “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Doubt,” “Adaptation,” “Angels in America.” This is why God invented the multiplex: so we don’t have to choose.View full sizeEthan (l.) and Joel CoenDirector(s) of the Decade (domestic): Ethan and Joel CoenWhen they followed “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” with a couple of underrated underperformers, they were said to be done, and they replied with “No Country for Old Men,” “Burn After Reading” and “A Serious Man” -- better films than most ‘important’ Hollywood directors have ever made. Inimitable, inscrutable and still in their primes. (Honorable mention: Steven Soderbergh)

View full sizePedro AlmodovarDirector of the Decade (international): Pedro AlmodóvarHe’s never made a bad film, but my God what a decade: “All About My Mother” (which opened locally in 2000), “Talk to Her,” “Bad Education,” “Volver” and “Broken Embraces.” He combines old and new Hollywood, European art cinema and soap operas, melodrama and crime thrillers, earnest sentiment and chic cheek. One of the greatest careers in all cinema, and thriving yet. (Honorable mention: Zhang Yimou)